Silent Suffering

Recently, there have been many hurtful remarks made on the Wheaton campus relating to race. These remarks were posted on Twitter and have sparked campus wide awareness of the issue of race, and it has started a chain reaction of prayer, support and dialogue about the issue. I have honestly been amazed by the amount of love that the Wheaton community has responded with. However, in the recent Town Hall chapel, where there is an open mic to ask questions to President Ryken, and he was asked about how he thinks homosexuality relates to this, his answer was essentially that race and sexual identity are different when it comes to discrimination. I think I agree with President Ryken, they are very different. When racist remarks are made, the community surrounds those who were hurt. When anti-gay and homophobic remarks are made, we suffer silently and alone.

Most Christians have decided to ignore the fact that they are hurting people around them with their remarks. They have created a systematic approach that allows them to discriminate against groups and feel as though they are doing God’s work. There are a few steps for achieving this state of mind:

1. Label gay people as “special type of sinners”, allowing Christians to distance themselves from gay people, because at least they aren’t “that kind of sinner”
2. Create an atmosphere of condemnation so that gay people feel as though they cannot discuss what they are feeling without being labeled, judged and hated
3. Rationalize that it is ok to speak hateful words about sinners because they are sinners, and sin is something to hate

There are problems with each of these steps which are obviously contrary to biblical principles. First, the only type of “special sin” is blaspheming the Holy Spirit. Even if being gay was a sin, it would be no different than any other sin. We are called to love our enemies as ourselves, not to love others unless we don’t like the particular sins they commit. Second, the atmosphere of a Christian community should be that of grace and love, not one of condemnation. Going back to loving others as ourselves, anytime we make someone feel hated and judged, we have failed in our duty to love others. Third, we are all sinners. If we were to start hating all sinners then we would have no one left to love.

Humans have a tendency to love those who we are similar to, and Christians are no exception. We must realize this, and make sure that even though we may not be able to see someone’s suffering, people are in pain all around us. As Christians, we must make every effort to make everyone feel loved and accepted, even if we do not agree with their beliefs. 

The Marin Foundation

So, you may notice a group of links over on the side of the blog, which will take you to some of my favorite websites relating to sexuality and Christianity. Over the next couple weeks I'm planning on doing a post relating to each of those sites. Today I'm going to be talking about the Marin Foundation and the book that was written by Andrew Marin called "Love is an Orientation".

I first heard about the Marin Foundation from a fellow student who mentioned it off hand in an email saying how cool the work they do is. I didn't think much more of it until much later when I heard someone talking about the book "Love is an Orientation", and how good it was. Intrigued, I got the book on my Kindle, and read it covertly over thanksgiving break at my aunt's house, and let me tell you, it was a life changer.

Andrew Marin is straight, and I am ashamed to say that when I found that out I wasn't sure I would be able to get much out of his book. I mean, how is a straight guy going to relate to me... he better not try to preach to me about what I feel. I couldn't be more wrong though. In college, Marin three friends come out to him as being either gay or lesbian, and it rocked his world. Since then he has moved to Boystown in Chicago, which is the gay neighborhood, and he has started a ministry for reaching out to the gay community.

In his book, Marin focuses on "building bridges" between Christianity and the gay community. These two have long been at odds, and more of the blame seems to lie with Christians, as Christians seem to be the ones who push away. Christians justify this by saying the being gay is a sin, but other sinners are accepted into the church every day. Whether being gay is or is not a sin, which is not a justification for how the church has treated gays. Building bridges is the idea that Christians need to work to get gays into the church. It’s like there is a massive divide between Christians and gays, and Christians are asking anyone who is gay to jump across. Rather, Christians need to work on building a bridge to help gay people over.

It is also a nice benefit that Marin does not take a position on if he is gay-affirming or believes that gay people should be celibate. This means the book is easily accessible for people who hold to either view. Overall, this book is a must read for people who are straight or gay.